“Few of the therapists were sympathetic to Marci and James’ cautious approach to putting their child on body-altering medication. Marci said that two of the therapists even chastised her for what they perceived as her “homophobia.”

Marci and James’ story is not unusual. More and more parents with similar stories are finding their way to sites such as the blog 4thwavenow, which describes itself as “a community of parents and friends skeptical of the transgender child/teen trend.”

These parents say that too often, therapists, school administrators, and even family and friends rebuke and criticize them for not immediately affirming their child’s identity and going along with plans for medical intervention.”

Of course, I would argue where children are concerned, caution is always the only approach.

“Alice Vachss, JD, is the former Chief of the Special Victims Bureau of the Queens (NYC) District Attorney’s Office. During her tenure, she tried more than 100 felony cases to verdict, including rape, child sexual assault, elder abuse, domestic violence, cult abuse, and homicide. Under her leadership, the Special Victims Bureau innovated new approaches and techniques in sex-crimes prosecution which ranged from trail-blazing the use of DNA evidence in New York courts, to firing the first shots in the still-current battle to modernize statutes of limitations for sexual assault. Ms. Vachss is the author of Sex Crimes (Random House, 1993), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. That book coined the term “collaborator” to describe those within the criminal-justice system who provide aid and comfort to perpetrators. “